GENCAT

PROLOG

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

gencat
--- generate a formatted message catalog

SYNOPSIS

gencat catfile msgfile...

DESCRIPTION

The
gencat
utility shall merge the message text source file
msgfile
into a formatted message catalog
catfile.
The file
catfile
shall be created if it does not already exist. If
catfile
does exist, its messages shall be included in the new
catfile.
If set and message numbers collide, the new message text defined in
msgfile
shall replace the old message text currently contained in
catfile.

OPTIONS

None.

OPERANDS

The following operands shall be supported:

catfile

A pathname of the formatted message catalog. If
'-'
is specified, standard output shall be used. The format of the message
catalog produced is unspecified.

msgfile

A pathname of a message text source file. If
'-'
is specified for an instance of
msgfile,
standard input shall be used. The format of message text source files
is defined in the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.

STDIN

The standard input shall not be used unless a
msgfile
operand is specified as
'-'.

INPUT FILES

The input files shall be text files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
gencat:

LANG

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are
unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008,
Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables
for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine
the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the
other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE

Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).

LC_MESSAGES

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and
contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

NLSPATH

Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

Default.

STDOUT

The standard output shall not be used unless the
catfile
operand is specified as
'-'.

STDERR

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

The content of a message text file shall be in the format defined as
follows. Note that the fields of a message text source line are
separated by a single
<blank>
character. Any other
<blank>
characters are considered to be part of the subsequent field.

$set n comment

This line specifies the set identifier of the following messages until
the next
$set
or end-of-file appears. The
n
denotes the set identifier, which is defined as a number in the range
[1,
{NL_SETMAX}]
(see the
<limits.h>
header defined in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008). The application shall ensure that set
identifiers are presented in ascending order within a single source
file, but need not be contiguous. Any string following the set
identifier shall be treated as a comment. If no
$set
directive is specified in a message text source file, all messages
shall be located in an implementation-defined default message set
NL_SETD (see the
<nl_types.h>
header defined in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008).

$delset n comment

This line deletes message set
n
from an existing message catalog. The
n
denotes the set number [1,
{NL_SETMAX}].
Any string following the set number shall be treated as a comment.

$ comment

A line beginning with
'$'
followed by a
<blank>
shall be treated as a comment.

m message-text

The
m
denotes the message identifier, which is defined as a number in the
range [1,
{NL_MSGMAX}]
(see the
<limits.h>
header). The
message-text
shall be stored in the message catalog with the set identifier
specified by the last
$set
directive, and with message identifier
m.
If the
message-text
is empty, and a
<blank>
field separator is present, an empty string shall be stored
in the message catalog. If a message source line has a message number,
but neither a field separator nor
message-text,
the existing message with that number (if any) shall be deleted from
the catalog. The application shall ensure that message identifiers are
in ascending order within a single set, but need not be contiguous. The
application shall ensure that the length of
message-text
is in the range [0,
{NL_TEXTMAX}]
(see the
<limits.h>
header).

$quote n

This line specifies an optional quote character
c,
which can be used to surround
message-text
so that trailing
<space>
characters or null (empty) messages are visible in a message source
line. By default, or if an empty
$quote
directive is supplied, no quoting of
message-text
shall be recognized.
Empty lines in a message text source file shall be ignored. The
effects of lines starting with any character other than those defined
above are implementation-defined.
Text strings can contain the special characters and escape sequences
defined in the following table:
\\

The escape sequence

consists of

specify the value of the desired character. If the character following a

<backslash>

is not one of those specified, the

<backslash>

shall be ignored.

A

<backslash>

followed by a

<newline>

is also used to continue a string on the following line. Thus, the

following two lines describe a single message string:

1 This line continues \

to the next line

which shall be equivalent to:

1 This line continues to the next line

The following exit values shall be returned:

Successful completion.

An error occurred.

Default.

Message catalogs produced by

are binary encoded, meaning that their portability cannot be guaranteed